


Gifts and Curses of the Casteless

by BurrSquee, Tikor



Series: Castebook: Casteless [7]
Category: Exalted
Genre: Gen, Lunars, Worldbuilding, sorcery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 02:35:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14322675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurrSquee/pseuds/BurrSquee, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tikor/pseuds/Tikor
Summary: Primal expressions of Essence.





	1. Artifacts and Evocations

The Casteless are rarely established enough or connected enough to own works of artifice like their more connected kin do. They usually scavenge or make their own Artifacts, if they have any at all.

 **The Bonding Stone, Jade tool**  
Artifact 2  
When Malik Fenn baited a Wyld Hunt into his enclave of Casteless, they tore through the outnumbered and ill-equipped Dragon-Blooded, losing none of their number in the ambush. Many among the Silver Pact had predicted they would fall to the first Wyld Hunt to notice them, so when they survived without casualties their status improved in the pragmatic eyes of Lunars where survival holds great weight. To his followers, Malik Fenn gave most of the spoils, for rewarding good followers renews their faith. He took for himself but one bauble, one that has helped him bind the Cult of Razik closer to one another.. and closer to him.

The Bonding Stone, when attuned by a sorcerer for 5 motes, grants the use of the Sworn Brothers’ Oath spell as an additional control spell. 

See Manual of Exalted Power: The Dragon-Blooded pages 122 and 123 for the Sworn Brothers’ Oath spell, with the following 3e additions:

 _Disruption (Oathbond rating):_ When a rival sorcerer disrupts the Sworn Brother’s Oath, the test of loyalty to take harmful action against another member of the brotherhood is reduced by the rival’s sorcerer’s Essence, to a minimum of 1, until either the bond is broken or the disrupting sorcerer dies. 

Control Spell: When you use a Willpower to aid a member of a mutual Sword Brotherhood, you may gain 1 Devotion die, up to that Sword Brotherhood’s Oathbond rating. You also gain 1 automatic success for Oathbond rolls. Outside of Sword Brotherhoods, people are supernaturally aware of your tendency towards loyalty to your chosen brotherhoods, effectively Reputation 3 (Loyal), though if that means they think you will keep your word in a shadow of that loyalty or that you will more likely betray outsiders in favor of your sworn brothers is in the eye of the beholder.


	2. Tattoo Artifacts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No marks on the free.

The Casteless have no Moonsilver Tattoos, and thus no Tattoo Artifacts. Instead, as they gain permanent limit, they gain access to more and more bizarre specialized Knacks that use and abuse their protean ability. 

Casteless who gain permanent limit, but are later tattooed, retain access to these Knacks, but are discouraged from using them around other Lunars, especially untattooed Lunars, by the Silver Pact. The Silver Pact has no interest in testing the limits of the Moonsilver Tattoos’ ability to contain agitated Wyld taint below the sacred marks, nor in advertising the strange powers of the Casteless. Ma-Ha-Suchi, the most prominent Lunar with noticeable permanent Limit, respects this even as he disrespects so much else. He does not want to suffer more disfigurement, even if the reasoning behind the risk is unsubstantiated superstition.


	3. Demesne, Manse, and Hearthstone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A nexus of power, under the ground and out of the way.

Revering places or things comes hard to the Casteless. They live to be free. So it is again rare that they might hold a seat of power, when walking to a new place, being unrooted, holds so much appeal. Yet, Manses and Demesnes are inarguably powerful, so some Casteless have made exceptions. Do not expect them to die on the hill it is built on, though. 

**Lightless, Earth Aspect**  
Demsene 4  
Deep in the tunnels that all lead to Urvar, beyond where the Mountainfolk patrol against the Darkbrood lies a confluence of underground Dragon-lines, pulsing with proximity to Omphalos, the Elemental Pole of Earth. There, Earth Essence gathers in a razor-bed of sharp rock, constantly churning, but so slowly that it cannot be perceived unless sensed for hours. Touching the growing stones, or hearing them crack as they expand against one another are the only ways to do so; never with light as the stones of the Manse reflects none.

Its harvests are the darkshards, fragments of jet black sheet rock that drink light and convert it to weight. Once harvested and brought under the sun’s rays, each shards weighs roughly one hundred pounds, but fits in the palm of a child’s hand. When five are tied to a man at sea, he will sink to the bottom no matter how strong he might swim (Strength+Athletics difficulty 5 each action to stay afloat, difficulty 7 to resurface). When shot from a trebuchet, two or three looking comically small in the sling meant for a boulder, they will pierce solid stone walls with their sharply applied force. Artificers have used them to grant heft that even the Exalted can feel in their attuned weapons, and that their foes feel five times over. One such Artificer is the current owner, Fik, who has worked the stones’ weight magic into the Artifact pick Black Breath which he has used to breach the adamant-sealed walls of bunkers and basements build below the ancient ruins of Meru.


	4. Charms and Sorcerous Initiation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The feel of Essence under shifting skin.

The Casteless are every bit as pussiant with Charms as their tattooed sisters. That they cluster in no particular set of Attributes means that any of the previous Charms would all suit, should that Casteless choose to pursue them and be experienced enough to understand. Beyond that generality, there are a set of Charms all the Casteless’ own, gained by shifting too much in the presense of the Wyld, blessings of accumulated Permanent Limit. 

Charm Name: Unimportant Thought  
Cost: 3m  
Minimums: Essence 1, Manipulation 1  
Type: Simple  
Keywords: Psyche  
Duration: One day  
Pre-requisites: None

With this Charm the Lunar can keep a thought from entering their target's mind for the scene after beating their Resolve with a Manipulation+Presence roll. Even if the target does not know the thought in question, this Charm can be useful - while under its influence the target treats the specified information, should she be presented with it, as unimportant - failing to take actions that information might move them to make without this influence - even though they will be able to recall the information normally once the Charm ends. The Lunar may repurchase this Charm at Essence 2 to increase its duration to Essence days and stackable up to the Lunar's Essence, and again at Essence 4 to increase it to Indefinite and no stacking limit. Lunars who go so far can keep their target ignorant of most anything that would distract them from the focus the Lunar desires, all while the target assumes their own free will is guiding the importance and unimportance they place on information.

Charm Name: Deadly Beastman Transformation  
Cost: 5m, 1wp  
Minimums: Essence 1, Strength 2  
Type: Simple  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Indefinite  
Pre-requisites: None

With this Charm, the Lunar gains another true form where her human self and her spirit shape meld and grow into one larger, deadlier amalgamation. The Lunar who dons this hybrid form gains one Merit associated with her spirit shape while in this form. Further, due to the beastial strength coursing through her enlarged form, she gains +2 to her Strength for feats of strength, both for the dice pool and for determining what feats she may attempt. While in this form disguise actions suffer a -5 penalty, and stealth a -2 penalty due to the increase in size and extremly recognizable beastial features.

Charm Name: More Than a Skin Technique  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 1, Strength 2  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: Deadly Beastman Transformation

While in her hybrid form, the Lunar gains access to a single non-latent special attack that her spirit shape can perform. If she is a great cat, she may benefit from being an ambush hunter (Exalted 3e page 565). If she is a horse she may benefit from her brutal kicks (Exalted 3e page 567). If she is a river dragon, she may clamp down to grapple (Exalted 3e page 571). This Charm may be repurchased up to Essence times for additional special attacks.

Charm Name: Tree-tossing Musculature  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 1, Strength 4  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: Deadly Beastman Transformation

While in her hybrid form, the Lunar instead gains +4 to her Strength for feats of strength, both for the dice pool and for determining what feats she may attempt. This Charm may be purchased again at Strength 6 to increase the bonus to instead +6 to her Strength for feats of strength, both for the dice pool and for determining what feats she may attempt (and again at 8 and +8, 10 and +10). Lunars have been known to rip the gates off of castles to grant entry to their beastman hordes with this Charm, or to build Manses single-handedly as a one-woman construction crew.

Charm Name: Hide-Rending Strikes  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 1, Strength 4  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: Deadly Beastman Transformation

While in her hybrid form, the Lunar my gain a withering damage incresing Merit, or lose the effects of a withering damage decreasing Flaw. The best time to humble your opponent is the first strike, after all. Examples include Bear’s Heavy-Arm Swipe, which grants +4 damage, Bull’s Strength, which grants withering attacks +2 damage and +1 Overwhelming, Boar’s Skewer, which grants +2 Overwelming, Kangaroo’s Solid Jab, which negates a withering damage Flaw of up to 4 dice, and Yeddim’s Follow-Through, which grants double 9’s on withering damage rolls. This Charm may be repurchased at Strength 6, 8, and 10.

Charm Name: Through the Senses of Gaia’s Children  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 1, Perception 2  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: Deadly Beastman Transformation

While in her hybrid form, the Lunar gains either a Merit associated with sensing more sharply, or, alternatively, a new sense entirely. She may see with the hawk’s eyes, smell with the hound’s nose, or echolocate with the bat’s scream. For enhanced senses, see the animal Merits beginning on page 554 of Exalted 3e (such as Keen Nose, Night Vision, Aquaitic Vision, etc.). The Enhanced Sense Merit on page 165 is also applicable. This Charm may be repurchased at Perception 4 for a second sense-enhancing Merit and again at Perception 6 for the third sense-enhancing merit (8 for 4, 10 for 5). Multiple merits can enhance the same sense. For example, you may wish to enhance your Perception-Based roles made using scent with both Enhanced Sense: Smell for +2 dice and Keen Nose for double 9’s.

Charm Name: Swiftness of the Beast  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 1, Dexterity 3  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: Deadly Beastman Transformation

While in her hybrid form, the Lunar gains a movement or quickness-enhancing merit. Examples include the Simian-Sure Feet (gain +1 to Athletics pools for climbing purposes), Fleet of Foot (3e Core pg. 161) and Fast Reflexes (3e Core pg. 161) Merits. This Charm may be repurchased at Dexterity 5 for a second movement or quickness-enhancing Merit and again at Dexterity 6 for the third such merit (8 for 4, 10 for 5). 

Charm Name: Swiftstrike of the Predator, Nimbleness of the Prey  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 1, Dexterity 6  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: Deadly Beastman Transformation

Beasts live life for the kill, or spend a lifetime evading predators. It is no great leap that even the Exalted could learn from their reflexes. If her spirit shape is a predator, the Lunar who learns this Charm gains +2 dice to the strike roll of any unarmed attack she makes in her hybrid form. If her spirit shape is a prey animal, she gains +1 to her Evasion in her hybrid form. If her spirit shape is sometimes predator, sometimes prey, she may choose when she enters her hybrid form which bonus to take.

Charm Name: Beast-Hide Assumption  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 1, Stamina 2  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: Deadly Beastman Transformation

While in her hybrid form, the Lunar gains a soak-granting, hardness-granting, or damage reducing Merit associated with her spirit shape. When man’s dull swords fall uselessly agianst her hide, she may humble them into respect for her might. Examples include Impenetrable Armor (Exalted 3e page 557), Bony Shell (Exalted 3e page 569), Fur (gain +1 Soak), and Thick Scales page (Exalted 3e page 574). Legendary Size cannot be purchased with this Charm. This Charm may be repurchased at Stamina 4, 6, 8 and 10.

Charm Name: Persistence Hunting Technique  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 1, Stamina 2  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: Deadly Beastman Transformation

The Lunar gains a Merit that allows her to doggedly pursue her prey, or to ceaselessly avoid those who are foolish enough to pursue her. Examples include the Boundless Endurance Merit (Exalted 3e page 159) and the Epic Vigor Merit (Exalted 3e page 575), but they also include Merits that allow her to hunt in hostile environments that her prey may wish to seek futule shelter in such as the frozen North (Air Adaptation, Compass of Celestial Directions Volume 2: The Wyld page 145), the sea (Gills, Exalted 3e page 166, 3 dot version) or the sky (Wings 3e Core pg. 167, 5 dot version). This Charm may be repurchased at Stamina 4, 6, 8 and 10.

Charm Name: The Latent Magic of Beasts  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 2, Intelligence 4  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: Deadly Beastman Transformation

With this Charm the possibilities of the beastial side of a Lunar’s hybrid form are mined for inspiriation and magical outlet. Gain 1 magical or latent ability either appropriate for animals generally or associated with your spirit shape in particular as if you were your own familiar. Sample magical and latent abilities are listed in Exalted 3e on pages 555-556 such as the Wing-Rushing Strike latent ability and Unerring God-Hound Scent, as well as the animals section of the antagonists chapter. This Charm may be repurchased at Intelligence 6, 8 and 10.

Charm Name: Natural Advantage Prana  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 3, Wits 4  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: Deadly Beastman Transformation

Beasts, red in tooth and claw, enjoy a nartual phsysicality that humans do not. Ever wary for predators, ever hungry for prey, they take to combat naturally. With this Charm, while in her hybrid form, the Lunar combines a human’s tactical thinking with the animal’s quick reaction speed. The Lunar does not lose initiative for failing a decisive attack, and her base initiative is 4 instead of 3. 

_Awakened by Teodozjian Scripture_  
You have heard the days-long recitation of the teodozjian scriptrue from a teodozjia, a demon of the first circle that takes the shape of a jade lion. By internalizing the epiphanies of Essence within, you have either intiated or furthered your mastery of sorcery. Teodozjia were made to evangelize the Yozi faith, and take a particularly dim view of any competing faith, especially those that revere the Terrestrial or Celestial gods, and for good reason. Their hatred of the Terrestrial and Celestial gods that betrayed their progenitors is so central to their being that living symbols of those faiths, such as Zenith Caste Solars, No Moon Lunars (or Casteless Lunars in their Waxing Moon aspect), any Sidereals, a sworn monk of the Immaculate Order, or any ordained priest present in the same scene as a spell cast by you may distort (Exalted 3e page 466) your sorcerous effects by simply spending a miscelaneous action and 1 Willpower whether or not they are personally sorcerers. Their connections to their gods make them aware of this power innately, and they recognize the blasphemous sorcery via any of their senses that percieve your sorcerous work.

 _Shaping Rituals_  
Teodozjia draw their demonic lineage to the second circle demon Zsofika, the Kite Flute. She who personally crafts each teodozjia from the tainted jade of Malfeas uses her projeny to aid her in the endless, celebratory hunt that is her message to whichever world bears witness to her predation. Any spell meant to find or travel towards someone the sorcerer means to harm gains the sorcerer’s Essence in sorcerous motes immediately committed to the spell. Thus is the first gift of the scripture.

Teodozjia draw their demonic lineage through the second circle demon Zsofika, the Kite Flute to the third cirlce demon Jacint, the Prince Upon the Tower. He who builds the basalt roads of Malfeas through his words sees a small measure himself in the scripture of the teodozjia. Any time the sorcerer spends a scene travelling on a road, they may gain a single sorcerous mote stackable to a limit of her Occult. Physical roads of any stature or formality are allowed. Famous and well-maintained roads such as the Great Coast Road of the Blessed Isle Road or Traveller’s Road from Wallport to Whitewall suffice, as does the barren, rock-strewn, unkept sheer stones that lead to the summit of the Imperial Mountain, or the packed dirt leading from a tiny Eastern village to the local market, so long as many have recognized the importance of that specific path sometime in the last century. However, the roads of Jacint may never cross, so each crossroads the sorcerer trods upon reduces her banked sorcerous motes to zero. Thus is the second gift of the scripture.

Teodozjia draw their demonic lineage through the second circle demon Zsofika, the Kite Flute through the third cirlce demon Jacint, the Prince Upon the Tower to the Yozi Adorjan, the Silent Wind. Silence is her world, and the silence of those who revere the gods that betrayed her former self pleases her greatly. Any time the sorcerer destroys a holy symbol or tome revering the Terrestrial or Celestial gods in the same scene she becomes aware of it, she regains one temporary Willpower. But, any time the sorcerer makes a copy of similar scripture herself or knowingly aids one who does so, she loses all her Willpower and cannot regain Willpower until any such copies are destroyed or five days have passed. To hear such scripture recited costs the sorcerer one Willpower, but killing the one who recited the holy words gains her two temporary Willpower. Each of these gains and losses of Willpower may occur at most once every five days when outside Malfeas, for both Adorjan’s pleasure and displeasure are constrained by her sister Cecelyne, the Boundless Desert, who keeps all of demon-kind apart from other realms such as Creation in space and time. Thus is the third gift of the scripture.

 _Other Benefits_  
Silent Sorcery (Merit 1) - When casting a spell that requires the sorcerer to make sounds, such as chanting or reciting words of power, the sorcerer may instead simply mouth them to the same effect without needing to make a sound. The sorcerer need not even be present in a medium such as air that can transmit sound to cast such spells. 

The Road that Never Splinters (Merit 2) - Like the basalt roads of Malfeas, sorcerers of the teodozjian scripture may train themselves to benefit from never wavering in their journeys. Upon the second shape sorcery action for a single spell, the sorcerer gains 1 automatic success to their Intelligence+Occult shape sorcery roll. Upon the third shape sorcery action for a single spell, the sorcerer gains two automatic successes to their Intelligence+Occult shape sorcery roll if they have an Essence of 2 or greater, otherwise they gain 1 automatic success. In general, they gain (n-1) automatic successes on their nth shape sorcery action for a single spell, with a cap of their Essence on the automatic successes granted for any given roll. 

Kite Flute Hunt (Merit 3) - Merely hunting prey can pry open the cage that holds the siblings to the teodozjia. Upon mastering the Kite Flute Hunt, when the sorcerer has set her sights on killing a specific person, while she is in the same scene as that person, demonic wisps in vaguely human form rise from the earth to bear standards painted with the gruesome conquests of Zsofika. Atop these banners sing hollow tubes, “kite flutes”, that catch the wind and whine in a frequency that brings terror to lesser beings. One standard bearer for the kite flutes appears every round (or in short sequence when playing a scene in narrative time), until there are as many as the sorcerer’s Essence. Any attack, even withering, that beats their Dodge of 3 will dissipate them, only to reform moments later. However, while they are bearing their standards and flutes the sound they make incurs a -1 situational penalty to all beings (besides the sorcerer with this Merit) whose Essence is less than the number of kite flutes keening together. 

**Permanent Limit Charms**

Charm Name: Unfixed Face  
Cost: -  
Minimums: 1 Permanent Limit  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: None

Changing forms costs 0 motes. It’s so easy that once per session at the storyteller’s ( _not_ the player’s) choice of time, the Lunar gains a random face from their shapes library. She remains in her new, random face until someone points it out to her. The Lunar herself cannot notice the difference. Stray whiskers in the coffee, molted feathers on her clothes, and scales felt while touching her face all seem normal to the Lunar. Even looking in a mirror doesn’t alert the Lunar to the change. 

Charm Name: Tidal Wounds  
Cost: -  
Minimums: 2 Permanent Limit  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: None

The Lunar’s body begins the transition to Chimerism slowly, easily hidden. While asleep, the Lunar’s body _shifts_ , without respecting what that shift might do to parts best left _unshifted_. The result could be healing or crippling or merely a moment of strangeness before shifting right back. It is easy for a Lunar often exposed to battle with the forces of the Wyld to explain away a new injury to her pack, or cite the healing powers of Luna’s Chosen when one goes away, or even blame the heedless fury of battle to convince _herself_ that she simply forgot how an injury was obtained. But careful observation will reveal that these changes are purely internal in cause.

At midnight on nights of the Half Moon (the 6th and 20th of each month), the Lunar must roll Essence+Permanent Limit. On a botch, they gain a crippling injury at the level of the number of 1’s that appear on the roll. On a failure, nothing happens. On a success, either remove a crippling injury at a level equal to or less than the successes gained, or gain that many health levels (of any penalty). 

Charm Name: Inner Wyld  
Cost: -  
Minimums: 3 Permanent Limit  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack, Obvious  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: None

Lunar Charms often benefit from a little unreality greasing up the gears of causility to let their changes slip through. A Lunar with Inner Wyld can generate such energies by changing their shape into what a shapeless Raksa probably looks like - a cloud of sentient Wyld energy - for an instant. When activating a Charm with the Wyld keyword anywhere more Wyld than Creation and less chaotic than Pure Chaos, treat the Wyld as one level higher for any Wyld effects that graduate their effects by Wyld intensity - the Lunar’s own Wyld shape supplies the Wyld energy to resonate with the Charm. If the Wyld Charm has no levels reduce the cost by 1 willpower and 5 motes to a minimum of 0wp and 0m. Finally, reduce your Resolve by 1 when next rolling your Wyld Taint pool. None of these effects are optional.

Charm Name: Bashed Flat  
Cost: 4m, 4i, 1lhlvl  
Minimums: 4 Permanent Limit  
Type: Reflexive  
Keywords: Knack, Perilous, Obvious  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: None

When taking Bashing damage, the Lunar may simply flatten herself, avoiding most of the ill effects of being smacked about by blunt objects. After being successfully struck by a decisive attack that would deal bashing damage the Lunar may spend 4 motes, 4 initiative and 1 lethal health level to sacrifice all of their Hardness for that instant to take no damage from the blow, but still reduce the Initiative pool of their attacker back to base initiative. This is an optional effect, meaning a Chimera can hide her nature in a battle where it is best left hidden. 

What is not optional is falling damage - when the Lunar takes any amount of falling damage she halfes round down the levels and/or dice of damage she takes. The Lunar’s shape visibly flattens in response to the sudden and global arrest of movement. This has lead some Lunar elders to adopt the habit of throwing suspected Chimera off of a well-measured cliff and forbidding them to take a flight-capable shape, seeing how severely they are injured and how well they keep their shape at the end of the fall. Less observant, less curious, or less merciful Lunars instead chop the _suspected_ Chimera’s head off, burn all the pieces, and don’t ask any questions.

Charm Name: Mutation’s Acceptance  
Cost: -  
Minimums: 5 Permanent Limit  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: None

At this point in a Chimera’s evolution she’s crossed into being more Chimera than Lunar, if only just. The consequences of her shapeshifting are no longer resisted as unnatural to her form. Suffering a mutation no longer resets your Wyld Taint dice pool. 

Charm Name: Derangement Multiplication  
Cost: -  
Minimums: 6 Permanent Limit  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: None

Raise the level of all of your Wyld mutations by 1 (pox to afflictions, deficiencies to debilities, and so on) where such mutations have higher levels to progress to, such as Wolf’s Pace, Gazelle’s Pace, and Cheetah’s Pace (Lunars pages 207, 208). For each Wyld mutation you have that does not have a higher level, gain a new mutation at that same level. If, by some miracle, the Lunar has reached this level of Chimerism without any Wyld mutations, gain 6 Wyld mutations, 3 positive and 3 negative, at the level of the player’s choice. The Lunar may specify one non-true form when learning Derangement Multiplication where they can escape the effects of these and any other mutations plaguing them for a scene, before they come roaring back upon their body and mind. 

Charm Name: Blessing of Ignorance  
Cost: -  
Minimums: 7 Permanent Limit  
Type: Reflexive  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Indefinite  
Pre-requisites: None

When the Chimera, as they unmistakably are at 7 permanent Limit, refuses to accept the monster they have become, they may simply step outside of time for a while. Looking upon her prior markings of the Wyld, or coming into contact with any other fact about herself she chooses not to accept, she may assert, “This isn’t me.” For a time, that becomes true.

A ‘Beast’ or a ‘Madwoman’ controls her body while her conciousness records nothing. It even erases the episode that caused her disbelief in what she has become, so that she may experience the horror and revulsion with fresh eyes when she ‘returns’. 

This release has the side effect of acting very similar to a Limit Break. Reduce the Lunar’s Limit track and Wyld Taint pool to 0 when the Charm concludes. If it concludes. It is at this point and further that the Chimera may choose not to return to her miserable existence. Mentally, anyway. Then the Beast is loose until it is cut down.

Charm Name: Spore Regrowth  
Cost: 10m, 3a  
Minimums: 8 Permanent Limit  
Type: Simple  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Indefinite+Essence Months  
Pre-requisites: None

At this level of Wyld taint, the Chimera is more of a story than a thinking being. And a good story retold never dies. After the mostly Chimeric Lunar has lost her final incapacitated health level to lethal damage that is not fire-based or aggrivated, she may still take an action - activating Spore Regrowth. 

Activating Spore Regrowth starts a regenerative process from the largest remaning chunk of the Chimera’s body. It does not need to begin at the moment of her death - she may wait until she is unobserved. Buds slowly sprout on her body at every point in need of restoration, gradually filling in the damaged flesh with new bone, sinew, and skin. This process could take as little as a week or as much as a month depending on how large the largest chunk happened to be. But even once the body is restored, the mind, such as it is, needs more care to retrieve. After restoring her body fully, when Luna passes through all of her phases once for each Essence the Chimera has attained, her eyes fling open, and she begins to hunt again.

Once the moon cycles have completed, Chimera have been known to dig themselves out of their own graves, to swim up from the bottom of the sea, or to burst from the insides of whatever Wyld beast unwisely ate them. But, this Charm is no true immortality. They are still vulnerable. If during any of this time while she is lethally incapacitated she takes any fire or aggravated damage, the regrowth process stops, she experiences a true death, and her Exaltation is released. The Silver Pact has a tradition of burning Chimera corpses, and mystical means of verifying that these ashes were once Chimera. Other hunters, such as the Wyld Hunt, are not as savy at telling one type of moon-mad Anathema apart from the other. Sometimes they get lucky with a Fire Aspect landing the killing blow. Other times, their grisly war tropies spring back to life in their own halls before rampaging across the Blessed Isle.

Charm Name: Wyldhome  
Cost: -  
Minimums: 9 Permanent Limit  
Type: Reflexive  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: None

The Lunar gains the ‘cannot survive in Creation’ Flaw, and will calcify without means to counteract it. Further, she becomes dissonant with all magical materials besides moonsilver. But these are simply complications of the greater shape she has learned, a shape to encompass all of her shapes. She becomes, in effect, a sentient story complete with stage, supporting cast, and background, gaining many of the characteristics of an Unshaped Raksha, such as the ability to have Eminations, and to _be_ a journeyable waypoint of the greater Wyld. Her Eminations are often other shapes she has mastered in her Heart’s Blood library, though the Heart Emination is always a true form. She may craft an Arcane Redoubt as a capstone to her own greatness, or her own darkness, or her own despair, whichever trait suits her story best. A Fountainhead, Glory, Stronghold, and Throne Room may follow. She may be quested against by shaped Raksa, and she suffers the same penalties for granting rewards (See Graceful Wicked Masques page 60 to 65). Here, in the Wyld of her own making that is the Chimera’s home, all her faces may dance and fight and dream together.

Charm Name: The Final Transition to Hunger  
Cost: -  
Minimums: 10 Permanent Limit  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: None

The Lunar who gains their 10th permanent Limit goes into a Limit Break nigh unending. This Charm is one of several that characterize the Limit Break from which there is no lasting break; they lose all other possible Limit Break options. In The Final Transition to Hunger, The Chimera will search for prey in consuming, all-encompassing hunger. It gains the Defining Principle ‘Sate the Hunger’, and all of its other existing Intimacies are suppressed. While this often means the Chimera will stalk and kill animals and people, it could just as easily mean the Chimera consumes an entire field of grains, gigantic trees, or even inedible rocks and dirt. Digestion is disgustingly quick, and the hunger is never sated while the Limit break is in force. Eating another sentient being brings partial control for a number of days equal to the meal’s permanent Essence. In partial limit break the Chimera can feel emotions and respect Intimacies other than hunger. The drive to eat is still the Chimera’s Defining Principle even in partial control, but under partial control it can gain a level of subtlety to its hunting that the full Limit Break does not allow. Eating a being in control of its own Essence allows the Chimera to experience a single scene of satiety, where she can focus on feelings of a higher order, degrading ‘Sate the Hunger’ to a minor Intimacy. 

Charm Name: The Final Transition to Flight  
Cost: -  
Minimums: 10 Permanent Limit  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: None

The Lunar who gains their 10th permanent Limit goes into a Limit Break nigh unending. This Charm is one of several that characterize the Limit Break from which there is no lasting break; they lose all other possible Limit Break options. In The Final Transition to Flight, The Chimera will consider any disturbance or provocation as an attempt on her life. She gains the Defining Principle ‘Avoid the Predator’, and all of her other existing Intimacies are suppressed. She cannot tolerate being in the same location for long, ceasessly traveling from place to place. Entering a new place, such as an island of Creation or a new waypoint in the Wyld brings partial control for as long a time as the Chimera remains undisturbed. In partial limit break the Chimera can feel emotions and respect Intimacies other than fleeing for her life. The skitishness of the Chimera’s Defining Principle shapes her thoughts and actions even in partial control, but under partial control it can focus on stationary goals that the full Limit Break does not allow. During the first day of a new location, she may experience a single scene of safety, where she can focus on feelings of a higher order, degrading ‘Avoid the Predator’ to a minor Intimacy. 

Charm Name: The Final Transition to Broodmother  
Cost: -  
Minimums: 10 Permanent Limit  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Knack  
Duration: Permanent  
Pre-requisites: None

The Lunar who gains their 10th permanent Limit goes into a Limit Break nigh unending. This Charm is one of several that characterize the Limit Break from which there is no lasting break; they lose all other possible Limit Break options. In The Final Transition to the Brood, The Chimera is perpetually pregnant and will continuously birth Wyld monsters and set them loose on the world no matter the sex of the form she assumes. She gains the Defining Principle ‘Raise my Cubs’, and all of her other existing Intimacies are suppressed. The types of creatures she issues forth are never the same twice, and require different care from their mother. Some are self-sufficient from the first day they slithered forth. Others take years of care to reach maturity. Some come in litters, and others are only children. Giving birth brings partial control for a number of days equal to the size of the litter. In partial limit break the Chimera can feel emotions and respect Intimacies other than maternal instincts. The drive to procreate is still the Chimera’s Defining Principle even in partial control, but under partial control it can gain a level of subtlety to its parenting that the full Limit Break does not allow. Watching her cub walk, swim, or fly away from its mother to roam free allows the Chimera to experience a single scene of satisfaction, where she can focus on feelings of a higher order, degrading ‘Raise my Cubs’ to a minor Intimacy, after which she enters labor once again.


End file.
